New From NZ: Power Nap, Mountaineater, Trick Mammoth

Pure pop, post-rock vistas and New Age voyaging await in our latest roundup of current New Zealand music.

? The various vibes emitting from Power Nap?s Eat or be Eaten* EP go something this: a submersible yacht voyaging through New Age waters (title track); Kraftwerk starring in a funky Atari noir (?Night Business?); and an intergalactic bloop convention (?Abstract Pizza?). It’s all the work of Chris Cudby, half of Auckland’s [Golden Axe](http://goldenaxe.bandcamp.com) (so you know his knowledge of [classic videogames](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Axe) is strong). The EP is out now via Sydney label Crystal Magic as a limited CDR and [name-your-price](http://crystalmagic.bandcamp.com/album/eat-or-be-eaten) download. The follow-up to last year’s *[Just Do It](http://crystalmagic.bandcamp.com/album/just-do-it), the label calls it ?a concept record riffing on production, each track playing with a distinct process of music-making, from track one’s sample-driven grooves to In-Box VST instrument-emulation net-pop to the tactile workouts produced by hardware synthesisers.? We call it ?shape-shifting dag science.?

? Dunedin trio Mountaineater live up to their mythic name immediately, chewing right through stoner riffs and growling bass on their [self-titled debut](http://mountaineater.bandcamp.com/album/mountaineater). It’s ominous stuff that’s able to channel Bleach-era Nirvana on the three-minute single [?Lord of Sumo?](http://www.youtube.com/watch’v=q62weirw_30) as well as spacey effects and post-rock vistas on the nine-minute [?Spider Baby?](http://mountaineater.bandcamp.com/track/spider-baby). Recorded over two years by the great Dale Cotton and out now through [Banished From the Universe](http://banishedfromtheuniverse.com), the album’s just been launched with a four-city NZ tour.

? Another Dunedin trio, Trick Mammoth, go in quite another direction: bashful, hummable indie pop. The new [name-your-price](http://trickmammoth.bandcamp.com/album/delphine-with-a-purpose-pinker-sea) single ?Delphine (With a Purpose)?/?Pinker Sea? is super sweet, thanks to the lead vocals of Millie Lovelock (also of the more bedroom-y [Astro Children](http://astrochildrenmusic.bandcamp.com)). It foreshadows next month’s debut album Floristry, due out through [Fishrider](http://www.fishriderrecords.com), which apparently departs somewhat from the single’s jangle-pop impulses. Trick Mammoth guitarist Andrew Ng also released a solo single last week as [Mavis Gary](http://mavisgary.bandcamp.com); the free ?Home Video? follows TM’s lead back to the more innocent, home-recorded, micro-label glory days of the ?90s pop underground.